Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - One channel out old Pioneer Reciever

I have a 20 year old pioneer reciever that I am trying to repair, One channel is out, it has fuses on the outputs to the speakers and someone has wrapped bailing wire around the prongs to by pass the fuse. I have checked the main output transistors and they appear to be ok, but I do not see the pre amp transistors, these others were the plug in type. I see some small top hat type transistors on the board and there are four of them, I wonder if the problem is in the pre amp stage or the board where the fuses are, there are four sets of Caps and Diodes there and couple more Ic's, this thing is wired by wrapping wires around spindles on the circuit board, so I dont get much distance when I try to pull up a board for any testing,

I am a novice, so any advice would be helpfull. A freind gave me an old occilliscope but I dont know how to use it, if anyone knows a good url with some faq's on occilliscopes I could use the information. Right now un-employed, injured with no money so fixing a few things could really help me out. Thanks

hey jimmy,

do you have sound in both channels when using the headphone jack.
some amps derive the headphone output from the output of the preamp but before the main output.
do you hear a hum in the bad channel?
if the transistors are socketed try reseating them.

as far as the o-scope. if you can use a voltmeter you can use a scope. the vertical channel is your voltage,and the horizontal is time. if you have access to a signal generator set it for a 1khz signal. use your scope to trace it through the amp. set the scope to measure ac. if you see any dc voltages in your signal path you could have a bad coupling capacitor.

good luck

I'd check the resistors around the Output Transistors if there was a fuse blown (bypassed) at that location.

Thanks Kuhunter, did not know to check for those, as I stated one channel is out, I also need to fix this power problem I guess first, So I will do a through check of these resistor thanks for the heads up.